1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer controlled audio systems and more particularly to an audio circuit for use with system boards and add-in cards for desktop and portable computers. The preferred embodiment of the present invention is particularly designed to be compatible with systems built primarily to run the MS-DOS, Windows, UNIX, and OS/2 operating systems, otherwise generally referred to IBM compatibles.
2. Brief Description of the Related Technology
Typically, personal computers are manufactured with only limited audio capabilities. These limited capabilities provide monophonic tone generation to provide audible signals to the user concerning various simple functions, such as alarms or other user alert signals. The typical personal computer system has no capability of providing stereo, high-quality audio which is a desired enhancement for multimedia and video game applications, nor do they have built-in capability to generate or synthesize music or other complex sounds. Musical synthesis capability is necessary when the user desires to use a musical composition application to produce or record sounds through the computer to be played on an external instrument, or through analog speakers and in multimedia (CD-ROM) applications as well. Typical sound cards also provide MIDI interfaces and game ports to accept inputs from MIDI instruments such as keyboard and joysticks for games.
Additionally, users at times desire the capability of using external analog sound sources, such as stereo equipment, microphones, and non-MIDI electrical instruments to be recorded digitally and/or mixed with digital sources before recording or playback through their computer. To satisfy these demands, a number of add-on products have been developed. One such line of products is referred to in the industry as a sound board. These sound boards are circuit boards carrying a number of integrated circuits and other associated circuitry which the user installs in expansion slots provided by the computer manufacturer. The expansion slots provide an ISA interface to the system bus thereby enabling the host processor to access sound generation and control functions on the board under the control of application software.
Presently, the most common sound boards in the industry are the Sound Blaster, and Adlib. These boards include a monolithic FM synthesizer circuit for generating sound from data provided from system memory. Such boards also include a digital signal processing integrated circuit that carries out digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions, processes commands from the host CPU under control of application software, generates control signals for the other circuits, processes MIDI data in and out, and provides data decompression on stored data. Other integrated or discrete circuits are necessary to interface with analog input or output ports, as well as separate circuits for system bus interface, among others.
These prior systems also have limited capabilities to produce audiophile quality sound, are high power consumers and are not suitable for use in system board applications where expansion slots are not utilized. Furthermore, such prior systems are not suitable for Plug-n-Play environments which require compliance with industry standard self-configuring methodology. Prior sound cards employed on-board jumper switches to provide configuration data for the host CPU.
Later versions of Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Pro2, added stereo to sound output capabilities by providing upgraded FM synthesizer integrated circuits, stereo output jacks, stereo digital recording and playback, a separate mixer integrated circuit and a separate CD-ROM interface. The Pro DSP circuit provided record and playback at up to 44.1 KHz in mono or 22.05 KHz in stereo. The mixer allowed mixing sounds from the microphone, line-in, CD-input and the digital sound, and CD audio play in the background.
Such systems required multiple integrated circuits, did not provide Plug-n-Play compatibility, had limited mixing capabilities, were large power consumers, and were only useable in expansion-slot configuration. Furthermore, the synthesizer function was limited in the number of voices that could be processed and was FM-based, as distinguished from more advanced wave table synthesizers. Such systems had limited mixing, panning and control functions for providing effects and did not provide individual voice effects.
Furthermore, such prior systems did not provide a local memory interface for temporarily storing sound data, but required system memory access for all data transfers. This limitation required frequent DMA or programmed I/O cycles to provide sound data for recording and playback, thereby imposing significant processor overhead.
These prior systems were also limited by an 8-bit sample size which limited dynamic range to 256 steps, and produced more pronounced aliasing than larger bit sample techniques. The latest Sound Blaster product, designated Sound Blaster 16 ASP, provided 16-bit playback and record sampling and 44.1 KHz stereo sampling rate. This latest version was a multiple chip embodiment which included a wavetable synthesizer circuit or chip, a dedicated processor circuit or chip, a separate bus interface chip, separate ADC and DAC circuits, an analog amplifier and other associated circuitry on a expansion board. While this system offered enhanced programmability, higher sampling rates and a larger sample size, it was nevertheless a multiple chip embodiment, suitable primarily for expansion slot use and was a high power consumer. This latest version offered no local memory, was not Plug-n-Play compatible and included a dedicated processor to process application and synthesis instructions. The wavetable option required a separate daughter board which included, among other things, a four megabyte ROM for storing wavetable data.
Another prior art system was offered by Advanced Gravis and Forte under the name Ultrasound. This system was another expansion slot sound board embodiment which incorporated into one chip the synthesizer, MIDI and game interfaces, DMA control and Adlib Sound Blaster compatibility logic. In addition to this ASIC the Ultrasound card included on-board DRAM (1 megabyte) for wavetable data; an address decoding chip; separate analog circuitry for interfacing with analog inputs and outputs; a separate programmable ISA bus interface chip; an interrupt PAL chip; and a separate digital-to-analog/analog-to-digital converter chip.
None of the prior systems provided single chip implementation of the synthesizer, data compression/decompression, DAC/ADC, mixer, analog interface, system bus interface, interrupt and DMA control, and compatibility features. Multiple chip embodiments have obvious limitations relating to cost, size and speed, as well as power consumption.
Combining all the functions required and desired in a single chip embodiment, while avoiding unwanted noise and other signal denigration has been one limitation or obstacle to full integration. Another obstacle has been the unavailability of an efficient architectural design for the single chip embodiment. Still another obstacle has been the lack of an efficient way to control individual modules and to manage power to such a fully integrated system.
Furthermore, each of the prior systems had one or more limitations on compatibility with various industry standard software and/or hardware. None of the prior systems provided optional Plug-n-Play compatibility. The prior art systems either utilized the host CPU extensively for synthesizer functions, or provided a dedicated synthesizer processor thereby either increasing cost or slowing down the operation by requiring extensive host CPU overhead.
The system of the present invention solves each of these problems in a number of unique and efficient ways. The system of the present invention also provides enhanced capabilities heretofore unavailable.